Jhokalups – Field Operation Action Report – 15

This week I had a rematch against Xammy, one again a Bakunin Expeditionary Force facing a Varuna Oppression Squad. Our monthly tournament for March is Deadly Dance, so both forces decided to see what the TAGs available could do. With the table set up we rolled and got started.

The table was set up fairly balanced with three parks across the middle of the table. We played these parks as jungle terrain; difficult terrain, a low visibility zone, and a saturation zone. This is part of ongoing practice for Rose City Raid, which will feature terrain rules heavily.

Deployment:

Xammy deployed first, a Fusilier/Kamau mixed link was set up I’m the smaller apartment, split up inside and outside of the building on the bottom floor. There was a camo marker near the park in my right, hiding the hidden deploy Crocman minelayer in the park. Another camo marker was on the second floor of the larger apartment. A machinist was hanging it with the Fusilier link and his Palbot was hiding in the other apartment. Patsy Garnett was hanging near the Palbot and a Reserve Squallo was placed and joined a duo team with Patsy.

Looking at the table I knew one spot that I wanted to put my Lizard. So I put my Zondmate and the Morlock near my small apartment. Zoe, the Moderator, and πWell were in my middle large apartment, ready to go hunting as needed. My zero was in the park on my right, prone and in cover. And I had the Reverend Haris in my right most apartment building, split across floors and rooms to protect them from speculative fire.

Top of 1: VIRD

Our Warcor has only the person going first drawing a classified for the zone. The person going second gets their zone in the opposite corner from that. Xammy drew Zone 4 and I got Zone 2. With that settled orders started getting spent. Xammy’s goal with this list was to throw out the Squallo and see what he could do with it. So to start, it and Patsy started walking towards the jungle. Another order and they were into the jungle on my left. Another order and the Lizard and Squallo could see each other, and elected to start shooting. With a Saturation, Low Visibility zone and the Lizard in cover we were looking at some odd shots. The Squallo lost the exchange and had to make explosive armor rolls. After failing one and passing two it continued to advance, once again losing the face to face. This time it’s armor couldn’t save it and it went unconscious. Spending a few orders Xammy was able to get his machinist over and brought the Squallo back to functionality. Advancing again the Squallo fights the Lizard in cover but loses again, once again falling unconscious. The Croc man reveals and walks towards my camo marker. Which chooses to do nothing. With that done Xammy passes turn.

Bottom of 1:Bakunin

Alright, I have a couple things to work on this turn, I need to get rid of the Squallo, get my Lizard into my scoring quadrant, and make sure that I have more points in Xammy’s quadrant so that he cannot score. Step one, getting rid of the Squallo. I attempt to have the Lizard shoot it off the table, which doesn’t work so well. So instead I have my Morlock walk up and Coup de Gras the Squallo. Good news step one complete. Next I drop my Meteor Zond onto the roof of the apartment building with the Fusillier link team in it. I then spend a couple orders having Zoe put spotlight onto the Fusilier medic. A couple of spec fire Heavy Grenades later and I have broken the fusilier link, killed the medic and taken out the multi-sniper. Next I send my Lizard on an aggressive mission to get it into my scoring zone. The Lizard eventually makes it, with minor structural damage and some paint scratches. (One wound taken). Finally I advance the Reverend link to have points in the zone and pass turn. With the Lizard in my Zone of operations and more points in the VIRD zone than Xammy I get 2 to his 0.

Score at End of 1: 2 – 0 Bakunin Favor

Top of 2: VIRD

The VIRD force needs to get some things done this turn if it wants to turn the game around. Step one is taking out the Lizard. Patsy crawls through the forest to avoid getting tagged by the Morlock. After sneaking up behind the Lizard Patsy puts enough bullets into it to lose all structural integrity. Unable to advance up and perform a Coup De Gras, Patsy elects to shoot some more, and the Lizard becomes an exploded bit of scrap metal. The Crocman spends a bit of time chasing around the Zero KHD before finally taking it out. WIth that all done Xammy passes turn.

Bottom of 2:Bakunin

With my TAG down I will not be able to get the maximum number of points this game. So I focus on other objectives. I have the morlock advance out and create a smoke screen. After having good cover the morlock makes it into the jungle park and takes out the Machinist, who was the Varuna Data Tracker. I attempt to then get my Zondmate up to the HVT and get my Classified done, but didn’t have enough orders to get it done. After looking at the board we decide to call it there since the best that VIRD could do would be a tie. Which makes it a…

Final Score: 4 – 0 Bakunin Victory

Lessons Learned:

TAGs are fun, but challenging. I enjoyed having a large stopy robot, but it was also so many points tied up in one model. More practice is needed.

The spec fire with the heavy grenade launcher worked out exactly like I wanted it to, I was able to get a meteor zond in place to be able to put targeted on the link team.

I still need to work on my deployment. I found myself awkwardly constrained by some of the set up I did.

The Reverends are medium infantry and could have been deployed further up, which would have needed fewer orders to contest zones. Something to remember for next time.